The immune system in higher vertebrates represents the first line of defense against various antigens that can enter the vertebrate body, including microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and viruses that are the causative agents of a variety of diseases.
There is a medical need for new therapies for the prevention and treatment of bacterial infections, especially bacterial infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria, and multiple drug-resistant bacteria. Currently, bacterial infections are treated with various antibiotics. Although antibiotics are effective in the treatment of various bacterial infections, there are a number of limitations to the effectiveness and safety of antibiotics. For example, some individuals have an allergic reaction to certain antibiotics and other individuals suffer from serious side effects. Moreover, continued misuse of antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial infections contributes to formation of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are an important part of innate immunity in the fight against pathogens. AMPs not only kill bacteria, but also fungi, parasites, enveloped viruses and cancer cells. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) can be found in virtual all forms of life; more than 1500 naturally occurring peptides have been discovered and their sequences are accessible in different databases, for example “The Antimicrobial Peptide database” (http://aps.unmc.edu/AP/main.php). Cationic AMPs consist of 12 to 80 amino acids, have a positive net charge, exhibit some degree of amphiphilicity, and have a range of different structures, such as alpha-helical, beta sheets and loops. Sequence analysis of natural AMPs has identified 146 different clusters, which demonstrates the diversity inherent in this group. Over decades of research, it has become increasingly clear that AMPs not only kill Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, but also fungi, enveloped viruses such as HIV, and parasites like Plasmodium falciparum, the main cause for malaria in humans. New antibiotics with a novel mechanism of action are particularly difficult to find, even with the massive screening and sequencing approaches from the pharmaceutical industry. Especially short AMPs are ideal medicinal drug candidates for economical reasons.
Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide compositions comprising newly developed synthetic peptides WKWLKKWIK (SEQ ID NO.:1), WRKFWKYLK (SEQ ID NO.:2), and RRWRVIVKW (SEQ ID NO.:3), alone or in combination, and use of said peptides in combination or as single therapeutic agents for the prophylaxis and/or treatment of infections, in particular bacterial infections and diseases caused by bacterial infections.
The teaching of the independent claims solves this object of the present invention. Further advantageous features, aspects and details of the invention are evident from the dependent claims, the description, and the examples of the present application.